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I sure hope those mini figures are in there somewhere. I am looking forward to seeing what you can complete.

I spot a pink flamingo thanks for the vid Jim :)

I actually own the black Seas barracuda ship.. but this one looks close to the original.

I’d say it was a fair deal as it’s a lot of time to clean, sort and organize the sets. Instructions are in great shape considering the age. Hope you are able to complete most of them.

Such a great set. Very different from the original Ideas submission but this set will be a classic

very nice!

Jim: “I know, I know, I know…” Do you know, Jim? I feel like we’ve been here before 😂

Yup, this is a good one that I’m glad I kept from childhood. The desire to MOC a bigger/better one is strong. Hmmm…

That Wolfpack tower is classic and I believe the first of that tower on a bridge design that continued into fantasy era. Would be cool to see a remake of that style again.

Nice! I picked up the same unitron set a few weeks ago in a Facebook lot but it was missing all the figures.

i often buy very old lego star wars sets, many of which get pretty dusty. I’ve found the best way to clean the bricks quickly and carefully is by using a microfiber cloth. the little fibers get in between the studs and wipe away the dust with minimal effort.

This would have to be one of my fav video of yours. I plan to share this to my lug when they are in a stuck in a creative funk.

I got out of Lego and back in around the same time as you. I ordered two separate 10lbs bulk Lego boxes from Goodwill to introduce me to the new bricks. I’m glad I did, but it’s a young man’s game. I’d like to do more orders but I don’t have the time

As a MOC builder myself, I agree it can for sure be a daunting task, and can very well be expensive to start out as well. MOC building is an absolute rabbit hole of a hobby... even sets like Rivendell and the Lion Knight's Castle I was MOC'ing up even as I was building it the first time 😂

I gathered the pieces for that same MOC with the intention of making the tree more pointy, only red leaves and using it as a castle for Vampire knights. Funny to find a video about it. Glad you worked thru your feelings. I've heard that quote before and often think about one I associate with it "Your work can only be as good as your taste," possibly also by Ira Glass but I'm not 100% sure.

You could make some drawings of the piece until you think it's good, then draw some top and side views. Then it'll be easier to build it with bricks. I think your wheel is too complex, big and crowded. You could simplify it down a bit so the set doesn't get too big and it's easier on the eye.

It looks amazing! Good to know that there are places you can get custom sticker for builds

Just keep building, get something built. Then revise and refine.

I find the best way to get started with a new MOC is to make individual details you want to incorporate into the finished product. I recently made a round house for my lego locomotives and the first items I worked on were the windows. I knew I wanted a certain look and size for the windows so I played around with a bunch of ways to make them. Then the doors, arched top, square top, paneled, studded etc. I must have tried 6-7 different ways to hinge the doors but eventually figured out what gave me the look I wanted. I like your point at the end of this video, just start. Once you start with litle details and merge them together, the tree or building kinda makes itself. Great video!

I feel this video

This is such great advice. Thank you

In engineering we have different methods to work around creative and skill based blockades. First we would look at a product as a black box with input and output. The input here could be bricks and the output can be your envisioned moc. Then we dissect the black box into different functions and aspects that interact with each other and how they do so: the tree, the waterwheel, the river… then we would put these functions into a morphological box: you come up with several solutions for each of these aspects/functions. For the waterwheel you could use one big round piece or you could achieve the round shape with hinges and smaller parts. Or with slopes on their side or wedges and wedgeplates. Then you try to combine these partial solutions to a few solutions of your moc and then you weigh out pro‘s and cons (achievable diameter of the wheel, available parts) The best solution for your situation is your starting point. Now you start building it and on the way you reiterate and reevaluate each partial solution. This way you progress from the rough shaping to the finer details without sacrificing creativity

Well said, i've stared looking at my inventory for a long time and not been able to create anything. A kind of paralysis. But then setting small goals and putting at least something on the table has helped occassionally

Those Sektion cabinets are exactly what I’ve been looking for! Super clean, soft close and have the perfect amount of depth to add in some sorting trays! Love the setup, and thanks for the great tip!

Great video

The thing about Lego is u can take it apart and redo and reuse it. Unless ur a fan of the evil kragle😂

That looks genuinely great! And such a creative idea! As they say, it's easier to edit than it is to make from scratch. Once you have something, then you can see what's good and bad about it and improve it, and you learned some things for next time. I recently completed my first official MOC (as an adult), a house, and I am very happy with it, but it went through some stuff before getting to this point. And now I can build its neighbour with more confidence.

I needed this. I've never done mocs before, but Ive got a idea in my head that I want to build and ive been second guessing myself. In my head I've been saying it won't be good, or I cant do it, not enough skill, etc. I know the vision is good, I've just have to start working on it, bit by bit.

Quilters do this. They use a design wall to rearrange their pieces until they are pleased with the composition.

Indeed it can be, but its also very rewarding when done lol

💯

Jim shorts!

Seems like Lego makes an awful lot of pieces that are called "whatever those things are".

love the categories, things make sense with connectors slopes. I've seperated the minfigs into three categories Pre-Modern, Modern, Space, So Pre-modern is anything that will fit Castle/Pirate/ older themes, Modern is anything that fits City, and Space is anything future like so Aliens, Robots, Space figures. Also the orange ones look a lot like the harbor freight ones, which are $8 a piece, so half the price of the amazon, Though I had to wipe them down with vinegar to get out the Oil/car shop smell.

Ooo nice labels, but definitely some different names to me

Love the labels! Crazy how we all have slightly different name for similar part groups.

If I were a Lego brick, I should like to be organised into ‘The Misfits’ drawer. Thank you. 🙏🏻 😌

My storage system at the moment is very simple, lots and lots of ziploc bags. Definitely not efficient, i even lost a bag full of round 1 x 1 bricks recently and have no idea where it went. Eventually i would love to move to a more organized system with drawers and such, i just need to find the room to do it and find an affordable way to do it. I enjoyed seeing your organization.

Hmm Castle. Sad to see the Blacksmith go but I totally understand the reasoning

Brother I m from India...how cam i buy it?

Looking forward to seeing what you make, and the link for the moc you are using as a starting point!

You can try to make a smaller moc from the blacksmith set. Saw a girl here on TH-cam making a very nice micro moc from Daily Bugle Spiderman set and it looked very pretty.

Very nice videos ! Huge fan from Brasil !

Super impressive castle display imo, thank you for sharing!

Guessing the blacksmith cottage that doesn't match the scale of the rest will be the one leaving. Edit: I was correct 😂

it's like a candy store!

Excellent review and lol ‘prior jim’ organization 😂

I feel like, with my brain at least. it would seem so much simpler to just have them sorted by colour only? like have one drawer for all black parts, all grey parts... etc. and sort them by part type/size in those drawers... same with the smaller pieces... keeping them by colour instead of by type.... like have a few mini compartments with green and then with blue and so on.... i am sorting my lego this way and so far i like it. but maybe that is just the puzzle fanatic in me talking, i am just so used to sorting by colour and then sorting by texture within that colour after....

What I disliked about this was that the bins work, but they don't go up to drawer height, so you have a bunch of unused space in each drawer vertically. Started making Cardboard bins that go up to drawer height.

I'm trying to figure this out myself because it's been mentally stressing me the hell out lately trying to sort perfectly, it feels like a duty to my childhood Lego or to some perfect ideal rather than something that actually helps me. Don't worry too much over combining elements or colors. Sorting is just to help speed up finding parts and have more time with the building experience. There's no intrinsic duty to achieve the perfect organization, which I feel we can easily fall into doing. Sorting has a huge upfront and ongoing cost, including on your sanity. I feel it needs to earn my time. And that means only sorting frequently used parts. Screw the purple bricks. I'm hardly ever going to be using them. Maybe sort those by color or keep them partially sorted, or just throw them in all together and accept that once a month you might need to dig around in the bottom drawer for five minutes through a bunch of other rarely used parts looking for that random pink wedge plate. It may be worth it to save time sorting. Also, do I actually need all two hundred of my gray clips together in a bin readily available at any given time? I probably only need a handful sorted and can sort the rest when the juice becomes worth the squeeze. Pieces you never ever use or have too many of? Donate them. If the day arrives in my lifetime when I need that 1990s windshield element that costs 30 cents online, I'll re-purchase it from Bricklink.